Bodyguards: Filner took women to hotel

The security detail has told investigators of visits to Westgate

Federal, state and local investigators have been gathering information and building cases against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner beyond the sexual harassment accusations that have captured national attention.

The investigations have quietly moved forward amid near-daily revelations, from women making claims of lurid Filner behavior to the mayor ending his behavioral therapy early to locks being changed on the mayor’s office.

Key recent developments on the investigative front, according to sources and documents:

• Members of the mayor’s security detail provided information to investigators about Filner taking women to the downtown Westgate hotel, among other things.

• A subpoena has been issued to Lee Burdick, Filner’s chief of staff, to have her testify under oath and provide her notes about issues involving Sunroad Centrum Partners, a developer that paid $100,000 to the city at the behest of the Filner administration before approval its project was granted. The FBI has been inquiring about the transaction.

• As many as 30 City Hall employees, many who work in the mayor’s City Hall suite, have now been interviewed by investigators, mostly with the City Attorney’s Office, but also with the Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.

• Three members of the Sheriff’s Department have been assigned to handle phone calls from a hotline set up for Filner accusers to report possible criminal misconduct and conduct follow up interviews and investigations.

• In addition to agency investigations, City Council Audit Committee Chairman Kevin Faulconer is scheduled to announce Monday he will summon key city officials to testify before his committee September 9 about Filner’s June trip to Paris and the use of city-issued credit cards in connection with that trip.

On Saturday, Filner completed two weeks of intensive behavioral therapy, according to his law firm, though there were conflicting reports about the exact day it ended. He had said he was entering the program a week ago but on Friday unexpectedly declared his treatment complete, with aides saying he had secretly begun treatment early.

Filner plans to take the coming week for personal time and is not expected to make public comments, according to the law firm.

His return was coupled with news Friday that the locks had been changed on his office, which led to considerable speculation because there was no public explanation for the move. On Saturday, Burdick told the Voice of San Diego in an email that the locks were changed to protect the mayor because it was uncertain who had keys.

“… if anything was removed while the Mayor was away, it could raise all kinds of questions about preservation or spoliation of potential evidence,” she told the Voice.

She has not responded to various requests from U-T San Diego for comment on the locks and the ongoing investigations.

Filner and the city have been sued for sexual harassment by Irene McCormack Jackson, the mayor’s former communications director. Goldsmith has filed a cross-complaint against Filner on behalf of the city.

Over the past week, the city attorney increasingly suggested a settlement could be the way out for Filner.

“You have a unanimous City Council demanding he resign,” City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said. “You have victims coming out on a daily basis. You have a mayor who has just got out of treatment for an undisclosed ailment but who obviously has severe problems.

“There is going to be a conclusion to this. I hope it’s sooner, rather than later. If Bob Filner wants to sit down and work it out, we can.”

Goldsmith declined to define what working it out might entail. Any comprehensive settlement would have to involve McCormack Jackson’s high-profile attorney, Gloria Allred, and perhaps others.

At least four agencies are investigating Filner: the City Attorney’s Office, the state Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department.

FBI agents have been asking questions about two housing developments that Filner held up until six-figure payments were received by the city.

U-T San Diego reported July 30 that federal agents expanded their investigation into Filner’s handling of the Sunroad project in Kearny Mesa to include another housing development, the Centrepoint apartments in College Area.

The questions focus on “administrative holds” Filner placed on the developments — a mechanism that City Attorney’s office has said lacked any legal basis. These holds allowed the city to extract additional concessions from the developer after the usual process for community input and project approval.

In the case of Centrepoint, the developer conceded to rent apartments by the unit rather than the bed, as well as making a $150,000 payment to improve a nearby park.

In the Sunroad case, the Filner administration wanted a $100,000 payment from the developer for two Filner pet projects: a veterans memorial in Ocean Beach and a daylong bicycling event.

Filner pledged to give the contributions back on June 28, the same day the Watchdog reported about a voicemail left at a City Council office, in which the developer directly linked the $100,000 contribution to the city to Filner’s support of the project changes.

Sunroad split the payment in two checks to the city and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has copies of both, according to sources.

Filner has hired civil and criminal defense attorneys and none would comment on the various investigations.

While women have been coming forward for weeks with stories of unwanted sexual advances and more about Filner, some have been calling the sheriff’s hotline.

Sheriff Bill Gore told the U-T that the hotline has received calls, but declined to say how many or elaborate on the claims.

“We have had calls and we are doing interviews,” Gore said. He said the interview process is proceeding as any investigation would and includes other names of people who might be witnesses.

He said sheriff’s investigators are talking to state attorney general prosecutors regularly to keep them apprised.

Gore didn’t give a time frame when the investigations might wrap up, but said “we will not let this drag on. We will investigate all there is to investigate.” He said will be an announcement at the conclusion.

These other investigations are moving forward in the shadows of the one that has drawn the lion’s share of attention, the McCormack Jackson lawsuit. She accused Filner of unwanted sexual advances and other inappropriate behavior, including putting her in a headlock and making suggestive comments to her such as “Wouldn’t it be great if you took off your panties and worked without them on?”

Allred has called on City Attorney Goldsmith to investigate what she claims was Filner’s use of his office to get women to “socialize with him and acquiesce to his sexual advances.”

The City Attorney forwarded those allegations to the state Attorney General, according to a spokesman.

“A full investigation is already underway as part of the pending lawsuit,” Goldsmith spokesman Tom Mitchell said in a statement.